Willie Mae 'Big Mama' Thornton was the first artist to record the then little known song written by two Los Angeles based teenagers, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, 'Hound Dog'. The song was the only chart record 'Big Mama' enjoyed and of course it went on to be recorded by a young lad called Elvis Presley who took the track to No. 1 on the pop charts for 11 weeks.

This is the first collection to feature the A & B sides of all her released singles between 1951 and 1961.